A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



the time of Bowerbank's appointment there 

 was only one boy in the upper school. In 

 1 80 1 it was stated 8 that ' the head master re- 

 ceives into his house a limited number of young 

 gentlemen, who are taught the learned languages, 

 the French tongue, &c., with every other polite 

 accomplishment.' As the boarders increased the 

 day boys did also, said the Commissioners of 

 Inquiry, thirty years later. In 1807 another at- 

 tempt was made by bill in Chancery to separate 

 the school from the church lands, and an answer 

 was put in by the vicar ; the suit was not actively 

 prosecuted. Before 1818 the master seems to 

 have given up taking boarders. 



Carlisle 9 says of the school in 1818 : 'Its 

 present state may be attributed partly to the in- 

 attention of the governers in not drawing up 

 Rules for the management of the School applic- 

 able to present times and circumstances, and more 

 particularly because Mansfield is now more a 

 manufacturing place than it formerly was ; little 

 classical learning being now unfortunately in re- 

 quisition. Still, however, the institution has been, 

 and may again be, productive of much utility. 

 The neglect of classical lore has evidently had a 

 pernicious effect upon the manners and morals of 

 the inhabitants. The two masters of the Royal 

 Free Grammar School are of a highly respectable 

 character; neither of them are graduates. ... At 

 present there are no scholars with the Head master; 

 and but few with the sub-master, and these more 

 for the purpose of receiving an English education 

 in an adjoining room, which is paid for ; seldom 

 proceeding in the schoolroom further than the 

 Latin Grammar.' 



The usher in question was the Rev. William 

 Goodacre. It is stated of him, some fifteen years 

 later, 10 by Lord Brougham's Commission of In- 

 quiry concerning Charities, that he had served 

 two curacies and resided about 2 miles from 

 Mansfield. It is stated that he had at one time 

 30 boys under his care ; but for some time pre- 

 vious to his resignation he had no scholar, and 

 during the fifteen years he was usher only 

 three boys passed through the lower to the upper 

 school. He was induced to resign in 1830 by 

 the strong representation of the governors, re- 

 peated complaints having been made of his neglect 

 and inattention. 



The next usher, Hodgson Brailsford, was ap- 

 pointed on probation, and confirmed in August 

 1831. He had 27 boys, including eight boarders, 

 learning besides Latin the three R's, for which 

 latter they paid 5 guineas a year. 



Mr. Bowerbank had only one boy in his school at 

 the time of our examination in March 1832. A 

 notion seems to have prevailed that the head master 

 was not obliged to take any boy under his care who 



had not passed through the lower school. Mr. Bower- 

 bank, however, stated that he considered himself obliged 

 to take scholars at once into his school if sufficiently 

 qualified ; and that he had three or four in Mr. Good- 

 acre's time, who came to him without passing through 

 the lower school. These three or four boys, with the 

 three above mentioned, who passed through the lower 

 school, seem to be all who have been under the head 

 master for the last 1 5 years, besides the one boy under 

 his care, who was sent up to him from the lower 

 school a very short time before our inquiry took 

 place. 



The neglected state of the school has been the 

 general subject of complaint on the part of the inhabi- 

 tants of Mansfield. In 1821 a meeting was called, 

 and the under master reprimanded, and more exact 

 attendance required. The parents were, however,, 

 unwilling to send their children to the school, and the 

 establishment was utterly useless to the town. We 

 are glad to be spared the necessity of making further 

 observation on the subject, having learnt that since 

 our inquiry the head master has resigned his situation, 

 thereby affording an opportunity to the governors, by 

 a judicious appointment of a new head master, to 

 restore to the inhabitants of Mansfield the benefit of 

 this institution of which they have been so long 

 deprived. 



There is a library of books belonging to the school 

 which consists of about 130 volumes, but many of 

 them are imperfect and in bad condition. They were 

 formerly kept in a chamber over the schoolhouse, but 

 they have been removed by Dr. Cursham Wl into his 

 own house for safe custody ; and the room in which 

 they were formerly placed has been used for keeping 

 fuel. The room should be restored to its former use, 

 and the books replaced there, proper care being taken, 

 for their preservation. 1011 



The school, however, only struggled on under 

 the usher, Hodgson Brailsford. The next head 

 master was the Rev. John Poole, who was 

 succeeded before 1850 by the Rev. Charles 

 Adolphus Row, who resigned in 1861. William 

 Espin, the usher, then carried on the school 

 until his death in 1865, when the premises 

 were let to a private schoolmaster, Richard 

 Tyrer, B.A., who seems to have met with some 

 success. The school was in abeyance as a 

 grammar school for nearly twenty years. A 

 third application to Chancery, in 1858, was suc- 

 cessful, and the Master of the Rolls found no 

 difficulty in deciding that the school was entitled 

 to seven-ninths of the whole income of the 

 confused church and school lands, and directed 

 that it should receive that amount after the 

 then vicar's death, which occurred in 1867. 

 The result was that the school gained an endow- 

 ment of ^1,200 a year instead of about ^400 

 a year. 



The school was not resuscitated till a scheme 

 was made by the Endowed Schools Commis- 

 sioners and approved by Queen Victoria in 



' Harrod, Hist, of Mansfield, pt. ii, 29. 

 1 End. Gram. Sch. ii, 263. 

 " Char. Com. Rep. xxv, 403. 



"' The Rev. Thomas Leeson Cursham, Vicar of 

 Mansfield. 



I0b Char. Com. Rep. xxv, 404. 



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